Team Vollmer..........

It was pointed out to me after the last issue of the VBL newsletter "The Beaver" was mailed out that I had neglected to mention some of the bass that were caught last season. Whoops! As Joe Vollmer (above) pointed out to me "Some of us are bass fishermen first, and we love the smallmouth fishing up there!". In an effort to correct my oversight I present "Team Voller, 2010".

Glen and Shawn Vollmer with a brace-o-bass. When, almost 20 years ago, we had bought the camp who should be the first one to phone about booking a cabin but Glen. Since then the brothers Vollmer have spent many, many 2 week stints at the lodge chasing bass, drinking martinis and smoking cigars.

It looks like all their practise has paid off. Even "rough fish" such as walleye have fallen victim to their expertise.

It's great to have guests like the Vollmers who really enjoy the experience here at VBL and we hope to have them back for the next 20 years!

January at the lodge.....

Welcome to the lodge in the winter......

Mike's garden shed project looking good, but it must be pretty chilly in there without a door!

Dog pack down by the cabins.

No fish fry today.......but coming soon enough.........

......if we ever get out on the machines.......

We had a visitor on the road into the camp. By the size it was definitely a timber wolf.

The wolf had a nice stroll from the camp to the railroad crossing......into town for a nice beagle or poodle perhaps?

Cryogenic deer........

Last weekend Susanne and I went for a ride on Eagle Lake and came across the site of some recent wolf activity in the form of some deer hide, a couple of hoofs, plenty of wolf tracks, wolf pee, and this object protruding from the snow.

On closer investigation it would seem that the head had partially frozen into the slush that was present on the lake in December. Time to bring out the axe!

This must be a new form of archaeology.....chipping away the layers of time, in this case ice.

Further along and I think I've gone as far as I need to go. Now for a little precise surgical separation using my axe.........

A nice looking 8 point rack. What a bummer to survive various winters, numerous hunting seasons and then succumb to who knows what just shortly after the hunt of 2010....but that is nature I suppose. By the way, this deer was located close to shore in Favell Bay.

Summertime, makes me feel fine.....

Well, its a new year and that means deer hunting is over and spring fishing seems a long way off. I find it helps me drift off to sleep on these cold winter nights if I think about the good fishing memories of the past year and imagine the season to come.

The highlight of every season is our annual trip to Eagle Lake and Vermilion Bay Lodge. If heaven is this good it'll be worth the wait. Gord, Susanne and Mike made us feel like family from the first time we met them. Actually, they made us feel terrific. It seems though, that Gord has an oddly disturbing ability to make everybody think he's Canada's gift to the world. We knew this in earnest this year as we neared the town formerly known as Vermilion Bay.


Now, we all love Gord, but this is a bit much. Not withstanding Gord's over developed ego (and under developed waistline), we once again were reminded why we are enamoured with Eagle as we pulled up to our first fishing spot.

Does anyone ever tire of scenery like this? And this is just above the water line. My wife could blow a million dollars on film while "we" fish Eagle. Thank God for digital cameras. Me, I'm still waiting for new Polaroid film, which I hear may be coming back. Still, I worry about Gord. No sooner do we return to the cabin after a morning on the water than he feels obliged to show off to my girls. "Look girls, no hands!". Wow.



To be fair, they were impressed. But then again, warm Spaghettios make them positively giggle. I was less impressed. Despite Gord's spin I still don't much care for the "custom" look of my pick-up box. Oh well, maybe this year I will finally out fish the Silver Fox and pull him back to earth. If not, I'm putting concrete in his Sorels. Until then, "keep your stick on the ice".

Photos from 2010......in no particular order....

Colonel's Island in a veil of frost.............

Brother in law John enjoying ice fishing and Keith Mitchell's Crown Royal.

Nuclear explosion in the west?

......or just a nice sunset

Checking out the Indian pictographs on Clearwater Lake..

A shoreline cedar tree on McColl Island which must have had some good wave action last Fall.

Flashback to the Fall of 2010.......a foggy morning and fishermen at VBL.

September morning down at the docks......

Cliffs along the portage trail to McGregor Lake......and Fall colours.

Frost on the roof of cabin 7 last Fall.

Another foggy morning ...........

A curious fox checks out Keith Mitchell and I..........

I think he's lonely Keith.......

Trolling for muskie on Halloween day off of muskie point.......no muskie but a nice lake trout!

Caught trolling the "Lil Fat Bastard" in 27 feet of water. "Beware the Fat Bastard!"

Vermilion Bay Lodge News Flash.....

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Last Day for Trout, 2010....or...How I Spent September 30th!

Keith Mitchell, from the "Island", was part of the excursion to tackle the lake trout before the season closed on October 1st. As we navigated the creek to the trout lake we were surprised to see the work the beavers had done on their dam. Keith stunned us that day by announcing "I have heard that the young beavers taste the best!" Was this a dark side of Keith that had not been revealed to us before? A connoisseur of beaver? We laughed the rest of the way up the creek!

Keith was very excited to catch a fish (and change the subject)! No Keith, that's not a trout.

We struggled at first trying to target a deep water bite. We could mark fish on the locator, but getting them to bite was a problem. As the water temps were still fairly warm I was not confident that the trout were going to be shallow, but when all else fails you have nothing to lose by changing tactics. We moved down the way and started casting the wind and wave swept shorelines.

Ron (Jo-anne's hubby) connects with a lake trout in the shallows using a Little Cleo spoon! This method ultimately works better for Ron, since the $5 reel he has been bragging about has only 30 feet of line on it! Regardless, I think we are on to something! Using this technique we caught many trout in the 3 to 6 foot depth range....basically right up on shore. So much for my water temperature theory. I do think the wave action was triggering these fish........

The boys after a hard day on the lake. Some good eaters to enjoy till the trout season re-opens on January 1st. By the way, Keith was right........the small (young) ones do taste better!